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Why 4:3?
Kirk McElhearn over at Macworld has attempted to answer the very first question I've had since I first heard that the iPad wasn't going to be in a widescreen format: Why 4:3? The answer: because for the majority of things you'll be using your iPad for, that's the right resolution you'll want. Magazines, books, the web, productivity, and so on, McElhearn argues that 4:3 is the right way to go. Of course, taste plays a factor in there -- I prefer to browse the Internet on a widescreen monitor, actually, and I think games, which I'll be playing a lot of on my iPad when I eventually get one, tend to work better with a wider field of view. And let's be honest, the 4:3 ratio only allows Apple to start small and go with an "iPad XL" or an "iPad HD" in the future, widening the screen and perhaps even upping the resolution. But McElhearn makes a good point that the 4:3 ratio has been Apple's home until only just recently, and for most objects that you hold in your hands and read like the iPad, from magazines to newspapers, the 4:3 ratio still fits. The ratio likely won't affect sales at all, but we'll have to see if movie watchers hold out for a better format for their media.
Got some time? Crush the Castle
I admit it. I am iPadded out. I am iTired. I am suffering from iBurnout. So it was with pleasure that I found an addicting little game for the iPhone and iPod touch called Crush the Castle [iTunes link]. It's a free medieval game where you use an ancient trebuchet to smash a variety of castles and the inhabitants standing nearby. Crush the Castle is physics based, so you have to swing a heavy projectile in the air and release at just the right point to flatten the castle off to the right of the trebuchet. After a few tries it gets damned addictive. You have more than a dozen castles to crush in two different kingdoms. If you do well, you get some medals. If not, you are rebuked by the king. The animation is good, the physics seem accurate, and the sounds of castles coming down and soldiers screaming adds to the fun. At each new level, the distance to the castles from your siege machine increases, so you really have to get the release point for the projectile just right. Crush the Castle is a port of a Flash-based game which you can play for free online. If you really get into the mild mayhem, I'd suggest you look at the US$1.99 version [iTunes link] which has 90 levels, 10 types of ammo, and an editor so you can design your own castles before you knock them down. Both versions get great reviews from users, and I'm in agreement. It's helping me forget all the endless iDebates over the iPad and work my iAggressions out on my iPhone. The free version is no risk, except for the time you are sure to lose. Let me know if you get hooked too. Check out more screen shots below: %Gallery-84288%
Video of games on the iPad, and what developers plan to do with them
Unfortunately, we weren't able to attend the event in San Francisco yesterday, but our good friends at Joystiq were, and they've brought back this video of Need for Speed: Shift [iTunes link] and a few other games running on the iPad. Not only can you see how the accelerometer works (exactly the same as the iPhone, basically), but you can see how the regular iPhone apps will upscale to full screen (via what looks like a small "button" in the corner) on the iPad. Of course, this video isn't ideal, but it actually looks better than I thought. Hopefully, of course, developers will actually put in the effort to recreate their apps for the iPad's bigger screen. That's exactly what the makers of Flight Control have said they plan to do; that game will be "re-imagined" to work on the iPad. They talk about not only making use of the bigger screen space, but actually going to the "next generation" of their games. It'll be very interesting to see, as the App Store evolves with the iPad, what kinds of markets emerge. Will we eventually have a set of games that works best on the iPhone, and a set that works better on the "big" screen?
iPhone game review: Diner Dash
Diner Dash [iTunes Link], the popular and addicting time-management PC game by Playfirst has made its way to the iPhone. In this game, you play Flo, an entrepreneur who ditched her dayjob to fulfill her dream of restaurant ownership. The game begins with Flo working in a dumpy greasy spoon, but as you progress through the levels and earn more money, upgrades become available, leading Flo to her ultimate goal: Running a thriving restaurant empire. Here's an iPhone game overview and review of Diner Dash. Gameplay: As customers enter the cafe, Flo must arrange seating, take orders, serve food, drop off bills, and bus tables -- all while monitoring everyone's happiness. A simple premise, but as you progress through the levels, gameplay becomes more difficult -- more demanding customers, more tables, and higher daily financial goals. To pass a level, you must meet the cash goal. Earn cash when customers are seated, served, and given appetizers and desserts. At the end of their meal, customers tip Flo based on their happiness level, indicated by the heart meter. Like most time management games, chaining (completing the same action in a row) and color matching (matching a customer's clothing color to the seat) earns you extra cash. If you get bored with the levels, try your luck at the Endless Shift mode. Endless Shift has a nonstop stream of customers coming through the door and ends when too many people get angry and storm out. Controls: Diner Dash is an excellent fit for the iPhone's touchscreen interface. Dragging customers to their seats with your finger and tapping to queue Flo's actions is simple and intuitive. Trying to switch customer seating arrangements to activate the color-matching bonus is tricky and takes time to master, but otherwise, game control is easy. Graphics and music:For a cartoon game, the graphics, animations, and music are all well-done. Don't like the music? Select "iPod Music" option on the main menu to listen to your own tunes. Diner Dash fans might be disappointed to learn that the iPhone adaptation is the same as the PC game. However, priced at only $4.99 -- a bargain compared to the PC game's $19.99 price tag -- you might not mind replaying the game on a mobile device. Diner Dash is the perfect game to pick up when you have a few minutes to spare. Passing a level typically takes about three to five minutes, so there's not a lot of time commitment involved. But once you play one level, you'll think, "Just one more...", and the next thing you know, two hours have passed! Diner Dash is available for purchase in the iTunes store.
Nintendo said Ninten-no to Project Natal in 2007?
Great balls of console wars fire! A top-level Nintendo insider has revealed that the motion-controlled gaming setup we now know as Project Natal was offered to the Japanese company way back in 2007 and promptly turned down because it was considered too expensive. We're told this decision came from supremo Satoru Iwata himself, who was worried about latency and the purported inability to sell it at "mass-market prices." This implies, of course, that 3DV Systems was fully responsible for Natal -- which Microsoft staunchly denies -- but CVG seems to consider its informant's words to be beyond suspicion. All we know for sure is that the stuff's coming, and awkwardness at house parties is about to reach a whole new level.
50 Android games demonstrated in one video -- who says Android can't game?
50 seems to be a pretty trendy number right now, what with Palm's Pre Plus and Samsung's i8910 HD both showing off the ability to run more than 49 concurrent processes. Joining that number party, albeit in a different fashion, is this video demonstrating 50 games running smooth as butter on a Motorola Droid handset. If you thought you had to have a Zune HD, iPod touch or one of them webOS thingies to get your mobile gaming on, maybe this will serve as a competent dissuader. See it after the break.
Retro XBLA games must be repurchased for the Xbox Game Room
Bad news for those of you who have picked up some classic arcade titles on Xbox Live and can't wait to play them in Microsoft's new Game Room: It looks like you will have to repurchase anything you want to play with your avatar in the 3D environment. Game Informer learned this recently from a Microsoft rep, who went on to say that it's because the Game Room titles are different from the XBLA versions -- in fact, it sounds like they're more old-school and not "revamped," as the rep puts it. Fortunately, you will get a small price break: As previously announced, the games will sell for 400 ($5) to play on Xbox 360 and PC, 240 ($3) for the game on one platform or 40 ($0.50) for "two quarters'" worth of playtime. But for those of us who've already shelled out 400 for the Centipede/Millipede combo, it looks like we'll have to pull out the wallet yet again.
Tower Defense + Twitter = Tweet Defense
I don't know if this is a great idea or an invitation to clog up your Twitter feed with inanity (go ahead, hit me with your best shot in the comments on that open invitation), but Tweet Defense takes the usual tower defense game to a new "social" level by upgrading your towers based on how much you tweet. What's the worst that could happen, right? Slidetoplay says it'll debut at $.99, but what price could you put on leveling up via Twitter, really?" [Via Joystiq]
Analytics company: games among apps being tested on rumored Apple tablet
Mobile analytics company Flurry has released a report on what it claims to be tracking data on Apple's latest creation, which is heavily rumored to be a tablet device. Accompanied by "a fair level of confidence," the results were assembled by identifying approximately 50 devices, all of which "match the characteristics" of the unannounced device, and placing them geographically within Apple's Cupertino campus. Of course, with said characteristics mired within the realm of speculation and the campus no doubt home to many in-test projects, the report is also accompanied by a fair level of skepticism. It's interesting that games form the clear majority of tested applications -- especially if EA is on-board, as the Wall Street Journal suggested -- and may portend one of the device's strongest aspirations. In your snooty face, News & Books! Joystiq will be attending Apple's media event on Wednesday, January 27, so expect to hear more then. [Via Engadget]
Amazon reacts to not yet here Apple tablet with SDK for Kindle
Maybe it was inevitable. Amazon today announced a Kindle Development Kit which allows software developers to build "active content" for Kindle readers.The kit gives developers access to programming interfaces, tools, and the needed documentation to create content. The kit also includes a Kindle Simulator for testing on Mac, PC or Linux computers. Content could be interactive books and magazines, cookbooks, travel planners that incorporate real time weather, or whatever else the developers dream up. Zagat, Electronics Arts and others say they are on board. Games like Chess and Othello would be a good fit. The possibilities are endless, just as they are on any computer platform or smartphone. What's lacking, of course, is color and a fast screen refresh, so games with any action are going to be kind of lacking. I don't think the Kindle is a good platform for Need for Speed or Skeeball. Amazon is surely reacting to the upcoming (probably) tablet from Apple, which is likely going to offer e-books and magazines in full color. Of course the battery life likely won't match the Kindle. I get about 2 weeks between charges on my Kindle if the wireless feature is turned off. Amazon has also adjusted the royalty split, announcing yesterday that authors will get a 70% share of sales of e-books, matching what Apple pays developers through iTunes. Amazon could also get a place on the tablet itself. It already has a Kindle app for the iPhone, so it wouldn't be a stretch to give people access to their Kindle purchases on any new device Apple comes up with. It's interesting to watch everyone scrambling after a product not yet released. If Apple, as expected, announces a color tablet next week, would it kill your desire for a Kindle or other e-book reader?
OnLive Beta gets a preview, lukewarm approval
We've now pretty much reached saturation point with OnLive demos, so it's good to finally see an independent set of eyes poring over the service and giving us the lowdown on the actual user experience. Whether you call it on demand, streamed, or cloud gaming, the concept is remarkably simple -- OnLive pumps games via a web browser onto your machine and gives you the full gaming experience without the need for all that pretty, but expensive hardware. PC Perspective's Ryan Shrout "found" a login to the Beta program and has put together a very thorough comparison between OnLive and playing the games locally on the same computer. His conclusion is that latency issues at present make an FPS like Unreal Tournament unplayable, but slower input games like Burnout Paradise or Mass Effect give pleasingly close renditions of the real thing. We encourage you to hit the source link to see side-by-side video comparisons and more in-depth analysis. Update: We had a feeling this one would be kinda controversial and sure enough OnLive and Pc Per have gotten into a bit of a sparring match. Steve Perlman has noted the paramount importance of latency in a blog post, subtly hinting that Ryan was too far out to have a valid experience, while Ryan has responded that he'd be happy to test it on servers local to him if OnLive were up for it, and again reiterated his purpose was to stimulate discussion more than it was to give a definitive judgment on what is still a Beta service.
GTA tops the list, and other game news
For some reason there's a flood of gaming news coming from the App Store this afternoon. So we've rounded it up for you to take in all in one read: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [iTunes link] has reached the top-grossing spot on the store in just two days, which means it's probably taken over the previous record holder. Good news for full-scale gamers: we can expect to see more direct ports from other handheld platforms like the DS and the PSP. Still not sure if GTA is worth the $10? Stay tuned for our review later tonight. Sega is releasing an Ultimate Genesis Collection on the App Store, which is more or less an official emulator. You get Space Harrier II with the free download, and then in-game purchases allow you to pick up other Sega games: Sonic for $6, Ecco the Dolphin for $3, and so on. They've released these games separately before, but this will give them a one-stop hub for official versions of older classics. Assassin's Creed II Discovery, the iPhone version of the Ubisoft hit, will reappear on the App Store in February at $9.99. In this interview with Appmodo, producer Ben Mattes talks about the iPhone and what Ubisoft plans to do with it. Finally, Magnacarta II is an RPG for the Xbox 360 that now has a character guide iPhone app. We've seen PC titles release complimentary apps before, but this is the first instance (I know of) where a console game has supplemented their release with an iPhone guide. Something to keep an eye on. Exciting news all around! Looks like some major developers are finally starting to figure out some interesting and profitable ways to take advantage of Apple's handheld platform.
Palm suddenly means business with games, heading to GDC this year
That was a quick turnaround, wasn't it? Palm wasted no time in retailing 3D games that are as visually engaging as the best the iPhone has to offer just as soon as it made the big announcement back at CES, and now it's taking things to the next level by heading out to GDC in San Francisco this March. The Game Developers Conference is -- as gaming goes, anyway -- what you'd call a Big Deal, so the fact that Palm is leading a session there to educate interested parties in its Plug-in Development Kit is a promising sign that these guys are taking the concept of webOS as an entertainment platform very, very seriously. Of course, it would've been nice to see this kind of drive about a year ago -- but better late than never.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars now available on iPhone and iPod touch
Rockstar Games told us a while back that they'd be releasing their DS hit Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the iPhone, and sure enough, last night it appeared on the App Store [iTunes link]. Touch Arcade got a head start on the game -- they've got some quick impressions and some gameplay video up on their site right now. The game appears to be a pretty faithful port of the highest-rated Nintendo DS game over on Metacritic, offering up GTA gameplay in a more isometric view that hearkens back to the original games in the series, before GTA III took things fully 3D. The main difference, of course, is that there are no buttons to play with, so you've got to deal with the usual touchscreen controls, and you can now listen to your iTunes playlists along with the in-game radio, but other than that, this is Grand Theft Auto officially on the iPhone. Cool. We've confirmed with Rockstar that this is an official release (they didn't drop it accidentally, though like Touch Arcade, we expected a little more warning), so you can head on over to the App Store and pick it up for $9.99 right now (half the price of the DS version, in case you thought that was high). We're playing with a copy of the game right now, so you can look for a more in-depth review later this week.
Developers on avoiding the 99 cent App Store price
I've become a big fan of game developer Capy (formerly Capybara) in the past few months -- their releases of Critter Crunch on iPhone [iTunes link] and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on the DS have won me over quickly. But I'm not sure I agree completely with their co-founder, Nathan Vella, about what he says in this Gamasutra interview. His opinion is that the push towards the 99 cent price on the App Store is "the single most frustrating and terrible thing about App Store pricing." He says the dollar price point is stifling, and he praises developers like Canabalt's Adam Saltsman for sticking with a higher price point even when their games are simple. I do agree with Vella on one thing: no developer should sell an app for less than it is worth, and dropping to 99 cents to increase sales doesn't work anyway. But certainly there's a place for 99 cent apps on the store, and I know personally that a 99 cent price point will open me up to try apps I'm not sure about, especially apps that I might be interested in but that don't offer a free trial. Clive Downie of ngmoco says as much later in the article: it's about the balance between providing choice for your customer and supporting yourself as a developer. In the end, Vella knows what he's doing: he doesn't say that 99 cents is always the wrong price, but that you should always stick to your guns and ask your customers to pay the right price. If a game is worth $4.99, or $6.99, or even $9.99, developers will find that customers who care about the quality are willing to pay for it. [via IGN]
Zen Bound 2 coming soon with beefed-up graphics, smoother interface
The fine gents at Touch Arcade have the first confirmation and screenshot of the sequel to one of our favorite games of 2009, Zen Bound 2. As you can see above, the new version (on the right) is a little more subdued with a cleaner UI, although Secret Exit stresses that this is still a work in progress (and obviously they'll have new objects to wrap up in rope to score points). But the new engine will be upgraded to use the most current version of OpenGL available in the iPhone, and you can see that on the rope above -- there are cleaner textures, and supposedly it'll move more smoothly as you play. Looks awesome to us. There still isn't an official announcement yet (this is actually a teaser picture), but that's expected soon, with a release still a few months out. So if you haven't tried out the first Zen Bound [iTunes link] yet, you've got plenty of time to pick it up and get good before the sequel.
Telltale Games may be releasing all games for Mac
Telltale Games has been rocking the retro lately, doing great things like bringing Secret of Monkey Island and Sam & Max back in new forms, and releasing new episodic classics like Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Now they might be doing so on the Mac: rumor has it that they'll be releasing their whole catalog on the Mac as soon as next month, just in time for an appearance at Macworld Expo. Apparently there are many Mac fans both on the team and in the customer base, and they're just figuring out a way to do it. Sounds awesome to us -- Telltale's stuff is already available on a few other platforms (both PC and consoles), but they have a history of putting fans first, so we might even expect some goodies to come with a Mac release. We'll have to wait and see what they've got planned. [Via IMG]
Microvision laser projection gun hands-on
You didn't think CES was over, did you? Saving a true gamer's delight for last, we went along to meet with Microvision's reps today and were introduced to its PicoP laser projector and gun gaming peripheral. The projection tech employed here is unique, as each pixel (848 x 480 resolution) is itself an RGB laser reflecting off a mirror which flips 60 times a second. What that results in is a permanently focused projection, no matter how much you wiggle, jiggle or maneuver the projector. The whole thing fits within 6cc and was designed to be embedded into phones. We snapped a few pics of the standalone projector and then moved on to the rifle gaming controller. Come along after the break to check out our hell-raising skills on video, as well as some more in-depth impressions of the hardware. %Gallery-82625%
2K Boston is bringing back Irrational Games name, legacy
[Image credit: Game Informer] Halo: Reach isn't the only story that you'll find in next month's Game Informer -- the magazine's blog has also revealed that the developer known for the past two years as 2K Boston will be returning to its roots as Irrational Games. The change isn't unexpected, as we've seen hints of the old identity coming back to the spotlight for a while. But apparently the company is going full force with the "renewed commitment" to the legacy: it'll be kicking off a new website soon (in about three days and 16 hours as of this writing, according to the countdown now running on IrrationalGames.com) that will contain lots of community features and information about Irrational's past -- including fan favorites like System Shock 2 and Freedom Force, in addition to 2K Boston's BioShock and future titles. Meanwhile, the company has a new logo -- spiffy! -- and the next Game Informer will have more information about the studios' history and why it made the choice to turn back the clock on its identity. We look forward to reading all about it.
SteelSeries NP+ mousepad not made of steel, water resistant nonetheless
Here's one for those gamers who insist on angry looking peripherals with names like "Frag" and "Sentinel" and "Head$hot" (oh, dear). The SteelSeries NP+ medium to rough glide mousepad offers higher level of mouse-to-surface friction -- the perfect thing for enabling your wish fulfillment / blood lust in the form of first person shooters. Works well with either your optical or laser mouse, apparently, and sports a generous 17.7 x 15.7-inch surface. Best of all, it's Mountain Dew-resistant! Available in March for $25.
